Smoking becomes a burning issue

By Gillian Drummond

As the 13th No Smoking Day approaches, restaurateurs and caterers remain divided on the provision of no-smoking areas in their establishments.

The pressure group Action on Smoking and Health claims there is public support for a law to make no-smoking areas in public places, including restaurants, compulsory.

But while many UK restaurateurs believe legislation is inevitable, some are worried about the loss of business this could bring.

Joel Kissin, managing director of Conran Restaurants, said: "It will cost the industry money because of loss of custom. We will have to have buffers between the customers, and we will also have to make sure we have more tables available."

He added: "It's hard enough running big restaurants. Having separate smoking areas would make life a lot more difficult."

Paolo Mele, owner of the Three Little Pigs restaurant in Waterloo, London, is having a one-day ban on No Smoking Day, Wednesday 13 March, and is introducing no-smoking areas from next week.

But he said he would not consider a total ban on smoking. "I would be turning a lot of people away," he explained.

In the field of staff catering, Bob Cotton, corporate communications director at Gardner Merchant, said no-smoking policies could mean losing customers. "If some people wish to carry on smoking, they will go out of the building and they are lost customers as far as we are concerned," he said.

Nevertheless, the industry reports an increasing trend towards restaurants with no-smoking areas, and contract caterers say they are being asked to ban smoking in staff restaurants as a matter of course. "In more and more of our restaurants that's the case, but where it's left to our own devices the preferred move is to have separate smoking areas," said Mr Cotton.

Contract caterer Aramark agreed that most of its clients now demanded smoke-free restaurants. "It makes it easier because there is less mess - there are no ashtrays to clear up," said marketing manager Sally Johnson.

While smoking bans are becoming popular in restaurants in the USA, so far Bass-owned Toby Restaurants is the only UK chain to introduce a total ban. This policy was introduced across the 138-strong chain in January this year.

Other chains have been less radical. The 280-strong Brewers Fayre chain of pub-restaurants has no-smoking areas in both the bar and restaurant areas, while the two Smollensky's restaurants in London have banned smoking on Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes.

Michael Gottlieb, owner of Smollensky's and chairman of the Restaurateurs Association of Great Britain (RAGB), said: "I would never be brave enough to ban it altogether, but in my heart of hearts I would like to."

He added: "It's a major hassle for every restaurant to have no-smoking areas. It would be better to have it all smoking or non-smoking."

The RAGB, which is opposed to blanket smoking bans, said only about six of its members had smoke-free restaurants.